The Effect of TV on Children

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The Effect of TV on Children
“The average child watches three and a half hours of Television a day”, says Daniel Levy, pediatrician for American Academy of Pediatrics (pg.32). Unfortunately American children spend more time watching television than they do engaging in other activities. Television has contributed somewhat in the development of our children. On one hand television has brought unlimited information, ideas, knowledge and entertainment; while on the other, it has also brought violence, sex and nudity in their lives. Television for children has both positive and negative effect in their physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being.
Television affects our children’s mental and emotional well being because of the violence in programming. Television violence is a major problem in our society and has been greatly responsible for the aggressive behavior in children (Joanne, Carter pg 317). When children see television characters getting what they want by hitting, they are more likely to imitate the same when put in a similar situation. Children learn by common rule; monkey see monkey do. We, as parents allow our children to watch “so called” children shows without even thinking about the context. A very famous cartoon show named “Tom & Jerry”, in which a cat tries to eat the mouse in every possible way, can very well turn into a murder show. The distortions of reality portrayed on the television programs are misleading and can be confusing. They see dead characters revive and dead people heel. Sex and nudity is another major problem in our television programming. The use of sex and nudity in advertising has become a major selling point in our society (Greenberg, Brown pg355). Beer commercials showing half naked women mud wrestling is an issue of ethical concerns. All though these commercials are intended for adult audience, kids are exposed to them as they may be shown during major sporti...